Sports

Stanford women earn 8 seed for NCAA volleyball tourney

The Stanford women's volleyball team was seeded eighth overall for the NCAA tournament and will host the first two rounds on Thursday and Friday.

The Cardinal (22-6) finished third in the Pac-12 Conference behind co-champions USC and Washington.

The Trojans are the No. 1 overall seed and were placed in the San Diego Regional, along with Stanford. The Huskies are seeded fifth and UCLA is seeded No. 14.

The Cardinal plays New Mexico State (28-5) in the first round at 7 p.m. Loyola Marymount and Colorado State will also play Thursday at Maples Pavilion at 4:30 p.m.

The Aggies went undefeated in Western Athletic Conference play and won the WAC Tournament to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. It is New Mexico State's eighth NCAA tournament appearance and first since 2013.

Loyola Marymount (22-8) received an at-large bid out of the West Coast Conference, is making its 13th postseason appearance. The Rams (26-3) were undefeated in Mountain West Conference play and earned an automatic berth into the tournament.

The winners of the Stanford-New Mexico State match and the Loyola Marymount-Colorado State match will meet in the second round on Friday at 7 p.m.

The San Diego Regional semifinal and final are on Dec. 11-12. The 2015 Final Four will be held at the Century Link Center in Omaha, Nebraska, Dec. 17-19.

Stanford, 10-5 against the field, is making its 35th straight NCAA tournament appearance and is one of just two teams to have made it to all 35 tournaments, with Penn State.

The Cardinal will be seeking its seventh NCAA title, 20th Final Four trip and 15th appearance in the national title match.

Last season, Stanford fell in the national semifinals to eventual national champion Penn State. Under 15th-year coach John Dunning, Stanford has reached six of the last 14 NCAA title matches and won two national championships.

Seven Pac-12 schools earned bids to the NCAA tournament, including Arizona, Arizona State and Oregon.